For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing ‘Real Mom Confessions’ on Instagram and Facebook, posting a picture of something from my very real everyday stories and inviting others to chime in with their very real everyday stories too. A few of mine have been:

• a towering pile of dishes with a toddler peeking around them
• emptying suitcases from a trip taken weeks earlier to refill them with clean laundry
• a pile of papers to sort that was large enough to slide on
• the fact that we used leftover suckers from Halloween for our Valentine’s Day treats

Very, everyday real.

The stories my online friends share on these posts make me laugh right out loud, and I love love love knowing that we’re not alone in whatever mess has made its way to our living rooms during this season of mothering.

There’s camaraderie when you’re living similar seasons, when you can understand with a single glance and say, “me too.”

The above is an excerpt from a post I wrote on (in)courage last month. It says so perfectly what I’ve wanted to share here, in my own space, for a long time. I – we! – have had the BEST time sharing our Real Mom Confessions on Facebook and Instagram, and I wanted to make sure that you, my beloved blog readers, got in on the fun.

So I’m inviting you to join in. Post a ‘confession’ on your blog, a picture on Instagram, a Tweet or a Facebook status. Grab the permalink to your post {if you need directions they’re below} and link it up right here! I’ll highlight some of your stories on my own social media channels.

It’s time to be real, mamas, to go first with our messes and stories and get all up in the real of our everydays. My confessions this week are:

1. I hadn’t showered in so long (and have been using, without success, a deodorant – not an anti-perspirant) that my 3yo said, “Mommy, you ‘mell.”
2. This week we were all recovering from a cough (and I got strep throat again. That’s the third time in a month, if you’re keeping score.) I had a solo parenting day this weekend, so to get us out of the house but contain our germfest, I piled the kids in the car, drove to McDonald’s, ordered a Big Breakfast, and we had a parking lot picnic. Lemonade from lemons, my friends. 
3.  Sam makes up songs and sings them while on the potty. Yesterday he sang, “twinkle, twinkle, potty star. POOP. How I wonder what you are. POOP.” and so on. Jared and I died laughing.
4. Today I let baby Josie play in her crib and sent Sam to the couch with the iPad so I could lay down for 20 minutes. I had zero guilt.
5. After I got up I was still tired, so I sat in the armchair and watched baby Josie rip apart a box of Kleenex. Here she is crawling away in her wake of destruction. Please note the empty box that we’ve been using as a garbage can for Kleenex and the dirty towels on the floor.

Link up below! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got.

To grab the permalink from an Instagram, Facebook or Twitter post:
– Click the timestamp (it will say something like ‘now’, 12 hours ago, 15 minutes ago…) on the post
– Copy the URL from the page that pops up
– That’s it!